2024-04-18
6 分钟My name is Stephen Breyer.
I am now a retired Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
and I've written a book about the Court called "Reading the Constitution - Why I Chose Pragmatism,
Not Textualism."
There is a lot of disagreement among the people of this country on many issues,
and I wrote an essay to show or explain in the 28 years I was on the Court that the nine justices,
although they disagreed a lot on the law,
did not disagree about personal matters.
They were friends.
Here is my essay, "The Supreme Court I Served On Was Made Up of Friends."
Recently,
the Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Amy Coney Barrett spoke together publicly about how members of the Court speak civilly to one another while disagreeing,
sometimes vigorously, about the law.
Considerable disagreements on professional matters among the Supreme Court Justices,
important as they are, remain professional, not personal.
The members of the Court can and do get along well personally,
and that matters.
In my tenure, this meant that we could listen to one another,
which increased the chances of agreement or compromise.
It means that the Court will work better for the nation that it serves,